Business Groups Get Behind CORI Reform
You might think the business community would be quick to lash out at a proposed law that would limit employers’ ability to find out whether their potential new hires have a criminal past.
But a bill that would change the state’s Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) system, already passed in the Senate and now under consideration in the House of Representatives, gets a thumbs up from many businesses and employer groups.
It wasn’t always that way. CORI reform advocates have been working for several years to change the records system, which many say can mislead employers into rejecting a potential employee because of irrelevant past offenses, or even complete misinformation. But business groups argued that early versions of proposed reform bills could lead to dangerous workplaces and serious liability issues.
Yet when the Senate passed its version of CORI reform as part of a larger crime bill in November, it got a positive reaction not just from advocacy groups like Worcester’s Ex-prisoners and Prisoners Organizing for Community Advancement but also from the Associated Industries of Massachusetts.
“It went through in a bipartisan fashion in the Senate,” said state Sen. Harriette L. Chandler, D-Worcester, the bill’s lead sponsor. “The CORI piece was remarkably well received.”
That might give you some idea of how much negotiation, and how many compromises, went into the legal language.
Clearing Up Confusion
Michael S. Lanava, business resource manager at the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, was one of the business advocates who helped push the legislation into the form that emerged.
He said business interests are very happy with a provision that gives all employers direct access to potential workers’ CORIs. Currently, most companies have to either petition the state board that manages CORI reports for access or else buy the information through a private third party at a considerable cost.
“Everybody basically will have access to the CORI system at a very affordable cost,” Lanava said.
Other provisions of the bill would make it possible to seal some criminal records more quickly—after 10 years for felonies and five years for misdemeanors, as opposed to the 15 and 10 years that are currently the rule.
Convictions for murder, manslaughter or felony sex offenses couldn’t be sealed. Sealing would be automatic instead of requiring a petition from the ex- offender.
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